Fort Drum is 2011 Community of Excellence

Fort Drum, NY - The Army Chief of Staff has selected U.S. Army Garrison Fort Drum, NY, as a Silver winner in the 2011 Army Communities of Excellence (ACOE) awards competition.

Fort Drum will receive a $500,000 prize at a ceremony held as part of the Installation Management Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, April 19.

"This award backs up what we here in the North Country have known all along - very few installations compare to Fort Drum when it comes to standard of living and services available," said Colonel Noel T. Nicolle, Garrison Commander.

The Chief of Staff Army presents ACOE Awards annually to recognize performance excellence in installation management. The awards recognize continuous business process improvement; individual innovation; groundbreaking initiatives; and dedication to efficiency, effectiveness, and

customer care. These efforts directly affect the quality of support to Soldiers, Families, civilian employees, and retirees who work, live, train, and play on Army installations.

An independent panel of judges identifies the winning installations based on the installations' written applications and additional information gathered during site visits by examiner teams.

"We know that when Soldiers and Families know they're moving, they want to know about some key items of interest, namely - education, housing, recreation and Family member employment opportunities.Because these items are important to them, they are important to us.This is what makes us a Community of Excellence - the dedication that we will be a home to our Soldiers and Families, rather than another stop in their Army experience," said Nicolle.

Fort Drum had previously won a $75,000 prize for winning a Exemplary Practices in installation operations award in 2010.

U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden, Germany is the 2011 Army Communities of Excellence (ACOE) awards competition Gold award winner, and Fort Drum shares the Silver with U.S. Army Garrison Fort Campbell, Kentucky.Bronze winners

include U.S. Army Garrison Fort Riley, Kansas, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Carson, Colorado and U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hood, Texas.

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